Syria-Xinjiang link: China warns leaders in Damascus not to threaten security elsewhere

Chinese envoy addresses UN briefing days after Turkestan Islamic Party publishes video encouraging Xinjiang Muslims to wage jihad

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A Chinese envoy to the UN says China respects choices made by the Syrian people and does not seek to interfere in internal Syrian affairs. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:27pm, 18 Dec 2024Updated: 1:05pm, 19 Dec 2024

A senior Chinese diplomat has warned Damascus’s new government not to support terrorism as a Syria-based Islamic militant group sent messages to Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region, urging them to wage attacks.

“The Syrian territory must not be used to support terrorism or threaten the security of other countries,” Geng Shuang, China’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said on Tuesday.

Geng told a UN briefing about the country that China “attaches high importance” to Syria’s drastic changes, and called on all parties concerned to exercise calm and restraint, refrain from actions that might escalate the situation and prevent new conflicts.

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“It is imperative to stabilise the security situation,” he said.

But the ambassador reiterated China’s long-pursued non-interference policy in the country’s internal affairs, saying Beijing respected the choices made by the Syrian people.

Earlier on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China opposed terrorist forces taking advantage of the situation in Syria to create chaos, and would help the country “safeguard its sovereignty and restore stability”.

Geng’s comment came days after the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) published a propaganda video encouraging Muslims in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to wage jihad, or holy war, in China.

The video, published by Islam Awazi, the group’s official propaganda outlet, urged Muslims across the world to wage jihad “to elevate Allah’s religion and to live under Islamic justice”.